The 5 Senses

 

Taste, touch, see, hear, and smell make up the 5 senses. It isn't until one or more is impaired that I truly appreciate the fact that most days I have all 5 senses. I had the flu this last week and the only sense that remained fully intact was my sense of touch. I have severe congestion so I haven't been able to smell and oddly enough, the congestion has affected my ability to taste as well. Food just doesn't have the same flavor. I'm blind as a bat with out my contacts and I managed to get pink eye so I wasn't able to wear my contacts. I have a pair of glasses but they are the wrong prescription. They help some but I would not trust myself to drive with them. I also lost a bit of my hearing to the congestion as well. I feel like I've had earmuffs on all week.

These senses work hand in hand to allow me to enjoy life. They can also keep me safe.  I learned a lesson this week too. If I don't have my sense of smell or sight, sometimes taste is not my best option.

It was a very cold (for South TX) morning. Around 20 degrees out. My neighbor's cat, Pumkin, looked so cold so I let him come in to warm up. He promptly ran upstairs and made himself comfortable on my bed snuggled up to my sleeping toddler. Because I was sick, once my older kids got on the bus I went back to bed. I didn't want the cat in my bed so I carried him into Bubs room and placed him on his bed. 5 minutes later Pumkin made his way back to my room and snuggled in by my feet. Whatever, I was too cold and sick to care.

An hour later I jumped in the shower and got dressed. My eyes were feeling better so I put my contacts in. I went downstairs to turn on the TV. We got a nice big TV for Christmas and an entertainment center to put it on. The rule is, nobody touches it or placed anything on the entertainment center. Well, I was horrified to see something wet and dripping down the right side of the screen. My thoughts immediately turned to my kids and the bubbles they were blowing in the house the night before. I suppose I could have easily missed it if I had my glasses on. I went up closer and couldn't visually tell what it was so I decided to touch it. It was not the consistency of the bubbles. It was a little thicker and maybe a little sticky. I then thought maybe it was cough medicine. Why would cough medicine be on my TV you might ask? Well, with KMae anything is possible. I tried to smell it but with no luck since I was all stopped up. So, I couldn't tell what it was by touching, seeing, or smelling. Obviously I couldn't hear it so I decided to taste it. I stuck my finger in a little bit and licked my finger. I can't really describe what it tasted like because gratefully my taste buds were clouded but I can tell you this, it was a little bitter and I knew instantly that it was not anything my kids had put on the TV. I had an image pop in my head from something I witnessed a couple days prior.

We had a garage sale and were cleaning up. In my lawn were some boxes. Pumkin walked up to the boxes lifted his tail and sprayed the box. He was marking his territory on the box. Never in my life had I seen a cat do this before.

With this image in my mind and a bitter taste on my tongue I knew instantly that what I had just tasted was not bubbles or cough medicine, how I wish it were, but in fact cat urine. What solidified my discovery was when I let my cat in the house she went over to the spot (post clean up) and was sniffing it like crazy. Apparently Pumkin was not too happy with me removing him from my bed so he decided to let me know by marking my brand new TV. Well my dear Pumkin, you are no longer allowed in my house no matter how cold it is outside.